Tertullian24622462 Born about 160, christian 195, apology 198, died about
245. the presbyter,
now regarded as chief of the Latin writers after Victor and Apollonius,
was from the city of Carthage in the province of Africa, and was the
son of a proconsul or Centurion, a man of keen and vigorous character,
he flourished chiefly in the reign of the emperor Severus and Antoninus
Caracalla and wrote many volumes which we pass by because they are well
known to most. I myself have seen a certain Paul an old man of
Concordia, a town of Italy, who, while he himself was a very young man
had been secretary to the blessed Cyprian who was already advanced in
age. He said that he himself had seen how Cyprian was accustomed never
to pass a day without reading Tertullian, and that he frequently said
to him, “Give me the master,” meaning by this, Tertullian.
He was presbyter of the church until middle life, afterwards driven by
the envy and abuse of the clergy of the Roman church, he lapsed to the
doctrine of Montanus, and mentions the new prophecy in many of his
books.

He composed, moreover, directly
against the church, volumes: On modesty, On persecution, On fasts,
On monogamy, six books On ecstasy, and a seventh which he
wrote Against Apollonius. He is said to have lived to a decrepit
old age, and to have composed many small works, which are not
extant.